Be Excellent To Each Other

It's harder to fly than your Phantom quadcopter is so far as that will fly itself, but in terms of difficulty and fragility compared with other RC planes it's not too bad, it should be reasonably stable and the foam construction is quite tough, but it would still break if you landed it badly, though.

Neither did I to be honest, really happy with how it looks. I just hope it still looks as nice after the first flight.

That looks beautiful.

I didn't realise there was another electric SE5A knocking around - I thought the only option was the (admittedly lovely looking, and not too spenny) Parkzone one.

That one you've got there looks lubberly.

Yeah I looked at the Parkzone offering too and checked out a few videos, it just doesn't have the same presence somehow. Also I know it's accurate but I hate the scheme they've done with the roundels way inboard on the top wing. Makes it look all wrong.

Oh, one thing about the Durafly one that I got is that the Chinese designers (inadvertently I think) based it on a 7/8th scale SE5A replica, they even went and modelled the replica's flat four engine and slightly longer nose which was necessary due to the modern power plant's lighter weight. I can't say it bothers me at all as I just wanted a stand-off scale WWI type thing but if someone really knew their old planes then I guess it might upset them.

Video of a couple of flights from this afternoon. The quality is a bit crappy because this is just recorded on the ground from the video link:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HIH2bIg2TQ

It's just like playing Wings on the Amiga! Brilliant.

That's superb having the camera swivelling on another channel.

It's loads of fun to fly, so different from the quadcopter. Once I got the CG sorted it's not too much of a handful either, but it needs to be flown all the time, not one for the beginner.

Damn

Had a few more flights with this the other day, so much fun. I also knocked up a better dashboard to replace the sticker that came with it which was based on the modern instruments found in the replica it's based on. I probably should have spent longer than 20 minutes though as I'm not too happy with it.

I know it's just an odd optical stroboscopic illusion, but every time the propeller appeared to slow tight down and stop I was thinking "Oh no! It's going to crash! Ahhhhh!"

Exciting quadcopter montage from over the weekend. Night flying (camera makes it look a lot brighter than it was), a massive Spitfire on a stick, a crash into a beach and some Zardart:

Excellent, the dusk shots are really nice. Need to fly it down the main Freeport 'street' next time

Awesome. What camera are you using? The GoPro I've got on mine is terrible at night

It's just the Hero 3 Black. Apparently some white balance and frame rate settings will work better at night but for that I hadn't touched it since the last time I used it in daylight. The FPV camera pretty much turns night into day though, it's quite freaky.

I didn't mention about me killing my Hubsan putting the n00b guard on did I?

Anyway, I stuck it on the wrong way (not quite a square so had it 90º off Took it off and pulled two motors out with it! just so happened the wires came out from inside the motors rather than off the PCB

Ordered two more cheap ones from Banggood and other bits... and they were the wrong size

Bought the right ones from Wireless Madness today and fixed the fucker!

But melted the case slightly as my new butane soldering iron has an exhaust vent at the side.

Punkocopter!!!!

Excellent work. Yeah, you need to watch the exhaust on those soldering irons.

Lessons learned tonight.

Chuffed I managed to solder such a fiddly thing though. Getting better at this stuff now.

This Hubsan FPV quad will apparently work with my existing video goggles:

http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/quadco ... pter-h107d

I think I owe it to myself to get a pre-Christmas present.

I bought my brother one of those Stingray RC boats for Christmas and found out his girlfriend has bought him one (and a hubsan quad). I was pissed off until Mrs Z said 'why don't you keep it then?' . So I am.

Could do with a 1:10 trailer though now for my cars to take my boat out with.

My daughter just bought me one of those quadcopters for Christmas.

How thoughtful!

I hope she'll let me test it out to avoid disappointment on Christmas morning.

Wow, that arrived quick. Just gave it a quick test, it's amazing! I'll be able to sit there with the goggles plugged into the telly and fly it all around the house and stuff. FOV is a bit narrow though so it could do with a wider angle lens, but apparently people have had a lot of success with just using one of those ones you can buy off ebay to stick onto a smartphone camera.

Any pics, Mark? Tempted myself but dunno if my existing vTX will fit on it? Or does it have space for it?

The camera and VTx are already built in and it uses some of the same frequencies as ImmersionRC/FatShark stuff uses. You just switch it on, put the original dipole antenna back on and your goggles will tune straight into it. That link up there is to just the quadcopter, I can't remember if you already have one of the Hubsan quads but if not then you'll also need a control transmitter like this :

http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/rc-con ... er-h203-16

Yeah, I've got the original X4, so thats covered.

The original link you posted has on it: "There is no transmitter included! For the X4 with the FPV tranmsitter see here: http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/multic ... ransmitter" which made me think it didn't include the VTx (because they list a separate product including an FPV transmitter).

I take it that's not right, then, and that it's actually the control TX that isn't included?

Oh I see - they mean a control transmitter with an FPV display on it.

Yeah, alls you need is the quad itself. Your batteries from the X4 will work too.

Ordered

Tempted by the Phantom 2 as well - 20 min flight time even with a gimbal and camera attached!

Fuckin' hell, they *do* ship quickly, don't they? Just arrived, charging now!

During the slow rotations on the beach, esspecially around that solar powered light with ladder cage, my brain kept looking for the C4 logo to appear.

All looks like a lot of fun.

How close to the transmission limits is the AV headset stuff? It'd have to be fairly powerful to work at long distances.

Technically the legal limit is 25mW, 250mW is workable with decent antennae.

So, technically, you need some kind of license?

600mW is quite common too, I think?

Technically you can't really do it, but it's all under negotiation.

After adding the fpv kit, how much more load can one take?

You could build one to carry anything really.

I ordered a Phantom 2 the other day. 20 minute flight times even with the camera and gimbal - yes please!

Anyone want to buy my Phantom 1?

£12

Is that the one that ended up in the quarry?

£9. Final offer.

£5 and some sort of comment under your forum name.

Technically no, as all of the components ended up being replaced

I'll buy it for £2 a month over a period of 1 month.

I've just put new motors on my main quadcopter, smoother, better quality ones. So this means I now have enough spare bits in the box to make a whole other quadcopter. So I think I'll put together something small, light, overpowered, fast and robust that uses cheap props that I won't cry when I break. A beater of a thing that I can just fly for fun.

Bought this frame from Deal Extreme for a whole £12:

http://dx.com/p/hj-x-mode-mwc-alien-mul ... ack-193525

This stuff is getting so cheap now.